Dozens of storms and tornadoes have killed at least 26 people in small towns and big cities across the south-central and eastern U.S. since late Friday night, all while tearing a path through the Arkansas capital and collapsing the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois.
AP reports confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses and laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country’s heartland.
The high winds and heavy rains were headed east as of late Saturday night with thunderstorms, hail and powerful winds predicted through late Sunday.
Fatalities included at least nine in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Illinois.
Residents clean up after the devastating tornadoes in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States on April 1, 2023. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders surveyed damaged areas. (Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Other deaths from the storms were reported in Alabama and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in a tornado’s path, the AP report sets out.
Recovery work is well underway with workers using chainsaws and bulldozers to clear the area and utility crews restoring power.
Nine people died in Tennessee’s McNairy County, east of Memphis, according to Patrick Sheehan, director the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
“The majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas,” David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville, told AP.
Gov. Bill Lee drove to the county Saturday to tour the destruction and comfort residents. He said the storm capped the “worst” week of his time as governor, coming days after a school shooting in Nashville that killed six people including a family friend whose funeral he and his wife, Maria, attended earlier in the day.
A swath of a residential area is in ruins after a tornado in Sullivan, Indiana. Three people were declared dead, and eight others were injured, as the search and rescue operation continued Saturday afternoon. The severe storm that created the tornado struck Friday, March 31, 2023, and damaged about 150 homes and structures in Sullivan. (Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty)
Residents catch a ride on a tractor after a tornado in Sullivan, Indiana. (Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“It’s terrible what has happened in this community, this county, this state,” Lee said. “But it looks like your community has done what Tennessean communities do, and that is rally and respond.”
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency in the state of Arkansas on Friday, with the national guard activated to help with recovery efforts.
The deadly tornadoes come a week after a rare, long-track twister killed 26 people in Mississippi.
The Mississippi tornado last week travelled 59 miles and lasted about an hour and 10 minutes – an unusually long period of time for a storm to sustain itself. It damaged about 2,000 homes, as Breitbart News reported.